Lexington Scrabble® Club 2006-2007 Season

This reports on the season which ran from September, 2006 through August, 2007.

The Lexington, Massachusetts Scrabble® Club #108 has been running
continuously since it was started by Edie Berman and Muriel Sands in
January, 1980. We meet nearly every Thursday night of the year in a
comfy basement meeting room of the First Parish Church, situated on
Lexington Green behind the Lexington Minuteman Statue. Judy Horn has
been directing this club for about 23 years. Ellen Miller serves as
associate director. Mike Wolfberg joined the club within its first
month of existence, and he took on the role of club statistician within
the first year. The club has operated with its own rating system,
designed primarily by Alan Frank, since early 1981. Ratings are based
on the percentage of points each of the players scores in each game.
The club web site includes a detailed description of this system.

This is a report of the highlights of this club's Sep-06 through Aug-07
season. In this season, individuals played 7504 games, and so there were
3752 games in all. The average score in all of these games was 386.
These numbers were 6058, 3029, and 380 for the previous season.
Two seasons ago the club average was 11 points less.
It is likely the new words in the OWL2 contributed to the increases
in the average.

Of the 7504 individual games, 7112 were played by an "active player".
We define an active player as someone who played at least 20 games in
the season. The average score of the active players was 385 for the
season. These numbers were 5602 and 380 for the previous season.

Average attendance thoughout the season was 30.2, and with 51 sessions.
These statistics indicate that each player plays on the average of almost 5
games per session. We realize this is higher than in many other clubs, and
so some of this club's achievements in one season should be understood
in this context. The average attendance in the previous season was 26.

169 different players have attended the club in the past 2 years.
During the 2006-2007 season there were
55 active players, namely those who played at least 20 games, and here are
the top 27, ordered by decreasing club average rating (not shown
here, but these are in the other table below) :

NSA ratings

We usually have about 6-10 players in the top 100
rated tournament players in North America,
based on the National Scrabble® Association (NSA) ratings.
Our club roster lists NSA ratings
of active players; these are updated a few times each year.

ISC Players

Challenges and Postmortems

The club has continued to use the
WHAT
program on one or two laptop computers available to all players at the
club. Players tend to handle their own challenges using the program, and
they often check on racks, etc. after a game is completed to see what
was possible. Since WHAT can provide definitions, this is an
efficient method of doing postmortems.

High Games

The highest game score in a club session during this season
was 830 by Michael Cresta. This game broke both
club records and records in North American Scrabble®. The losing
score by Wayne Yorra was 490, and so their total was 1320.

Most Games

Trx. Kt. played the most
games during the season, with 390 games, which is
higher than her last season's number.
Two seasons ago she played 406 games,
which broke the record for the most games in a season.
Jamie Ryan played 381 games during the season.

Most Wins

With 255 wins, Jamie had the most wins, and this
broke the previous club record set by Jamie at 222 two seasons ago.
Mike Wolfberg had 213 wins, and Ben Harrison had just one less.

Most Points

With a total of 162,744 points,
Jamie Ryan scored the most points in this season,
breaking his record of 138,892 set two seasons ago.
Ben Harrison scored 133,510 points, and Trx. Kt. scored 132,044 points.

Highest Percentage Above Average

In order to qualify for the highest percentage above average
accolade, you must have already played at least 20 games in the season,
and Michael Cresta's high game was not eligible. The highest such game
which did count was Mike Wolfberg's 737, and that was 76.1%
above his average. The runner-up was Aron Klopper with a 62.2% game.

For the first time in club history, the high-above-average score was
achieved by a losing score, and this was by Wayne Yorra when he lost
with a 490 to Michael Cresta's 830. As stated above, Michael had not
played enough games in the season to be eligible for the accolade.
We have tracked this statistic only since the 1997-1998 season, and the
club record is 80.6%.

Many Bingos by One Player

Joel Horn played a 6-bingo game and also a 5-bingo
game during the season. Joel and Diana Spiller played a total of 8
in a game they played together. Joel played 5 of these bingos and lost.

High Losing Score

The highest loss during this season was Wayne Yorra's
490 (to Michael Cresta's 830). This was the second
highest losing score in this club's history.
The highest losing score for the club was
500, set two seasons ago.

High Number of High-Rated Players

During this season, we started
to notice high numbers of players with a club rating of
at least 1700, and there were 28 such players on 26-Jul-07.

High Bingo

Michael Cresta scored 365 points for
QUIXOTRY. In the same game, he
scored 239 for FLATFISH.
His 365-pointer is now the club record, and the other bingo
is the club's fourth highest bingo score to date.

High Non-Bingo

Mike Wolfberg scored the second-highest non-bingo in club history
with a 106-point play. Bruce Adams played a 103-point non-bingo.
Arnie Horowitz made a 102-point non-bingo; he
holds the club record with a 109-point non-bingo played in 2001.

Low Win

In a game which went to completion between two of our experienced
players, the score was 279-262. The lowest win in this club's history
was in a game terminated early when there were
six consecutive plays scoring zero.

Many Wins Above 500

On 21-Jun-07, with 35 players in attendance, there were 18
games in which the winner exceeded 500, breaking the club previous club of
14 such games (also first seen in this season).
About one month later there was a session with 16 such games.

Many Losses in the 400's

This statistic used to be just 8, but that was exceeded several times
during this season. The highest number of high losses was
12 when club attendance was only 27. In other sessions
in the season there were 11, 10, 9, and 9 high losses.

High Total

The new club record was set with a high total of
1320 when Michael Cresta defeated Wayne Yorra
830-490. A new runner-up record was also set this season with a
1077 point total when Mike Wolfberg defeated Jamie Ryan 737-340.
Other high totals in this season are 1033, 1021, 1001, and 1000.
These are all among the top 8 such games in club history.

Many High Totals

On 22-Mar-07, when attendance was 33, there were 7 games in which the
total exceeded 900. About one month earlier, there were 5 such games.
We believe these both to be records.

High Session Attendance

The highest attendance during this season was
40 players.
The average attendance was 30, up 4 from the previous season.
The club's record attendance is 44 set three seasons ago.

An Unusual Happening

On 9-Nov-06, In a game between Elaine Patterson and Hilda Siegel,
part of the board looked like:

G
A
Y B
A B
H D A Y
O M E N
O M E N
U
A
L

Is seemed most unusual to see the same word just above itself. Hilda played
ANNUAL,
Elaine played
DEE,
Hilda played
MM,
Elaine played
YAHOO.